Crises & Crowds
See this post for an intro on the topic.
Corona, covid, COVID-19, whatever way you refer to the novel coronavirus pandemic it has been one hell of a ‘recession trigger’ to sink the world into economic despair. The world changed overnight, ‘social distancing’ or physical distancing, as I like to refer to it, is now commonplace in our daily lives. Taking a bus, train or plane without a mask is no longer possible and anyone coughing in public is looked at with fear and disgust.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC — A TRUE ECONOMIC CIRCUIT BREAKER
I prefer the term physical distancing because most of us are social animals and we need interpersonal communication to survive and thrive. Shying away from each other socially rather than only physically is not a sustainable way forward for our societies and economies. Crowds gathering and people connecting with each other be it in small or vast groups for any positive purpose has been a thing of pre-COVID times, has happened during COVID times and soon hopefully, in a safer manner, will again be a thing of post-COVID times. It instills hope not fear, helps drive change and clears paths to brighter futures as most of these groups fighting for (social) change translate into consumer movements.
The crowd’s battle
Change, be it demanded of (big) businesses or of our policy makers, has always required crowds to pick their battles and gather in vast sizes. Yet there are alternative ways to gathering in person, ways in which we can put our combined weight behind anything that helps us progress to a more egalitarian and sustainable world, in which the many can live healthy, happy and in (financial) dignity. One way that has emerged in the past decade is different forms of social revolution on social media, however to push through significant change the ‘offline’ component of coming together for such purposes remains highly important. In this particular post I want to focus on the battles crowds have had with ‘shareholders’, revolving around the broader and heavily debated topic of ‘shareholder value’.
Stakeholders of any type of economic activity are crucial in creating or avoiding crises. Think of environmental crises (yes, it takes on many forms) and the emergence of the COVID-19 virus causing the pandemic, the spread was severely aided by deforestation. Something that could have potentially been prevented by stakeholders fighting the business (allowing for the) cutting (of) these trees. Or think of plastic, having a massive impact on many parts of nature and society. All of us are stakeholders in some way or form, simply by having a private pension, buying pizza at the supermarket or riding a bus makes you part of a chain. With awareness of climate change and other issues rising constantly it is no surprise that many of us consumers expect businesses to do the right thing and for business leaders to speak up when something is not right in the political or social domain.
In addition to this, as the above video regarding public perceptions on good business highlights, there is a significant rise in people only wanting to buy brands that represent their personal values (72% up from 56% in 2019). So rather than simply expecting brands to do the right thing it would be great if we could play a role in making brands act more responsibly.
How and why should the crowd turn into the shareholder?
So if crowds are increasingly aware and demanding, and there is a clear need for more of us having a say in how brands conduct themselves. How can we turn ‘the few’ into ‘the many’? The crowd into shareholders. One way is indeed equity crowdfunding. Having studied and worked in business, and in particular strategy, marketing and market research, I have always been convinced that businesses carry immense social responsibility. This and my endless curiosity have meant I started investing small amounts in progressive startups around 2015. As a consumer, professional and concerned citizen I am convinced making more people part of the shareholder crowd can tackle a lot of outstanding issues in the ‘ shareholder value’ debate.
Crowds gathering virtually to support the brands and businesses they love through equity crowdfunding sites help amplify sustainable market trends. There is a clear preference for brands that help tackle things such as existing environmental issues(e.g. single use plastic alternatives by Notpla), significantly improve elements of our personal lives (e.g. such as the impact Monzo has had on improving personal finance) or other ventures that operate with an ethical focus on improving lives for the long term.
With larger portions of the crowd scrutinising consumer facing businesses at an early stage, transparency in how a brand/business conducts itself becomes more commonplace throughout its entire journey. Rather than a journalist having to come in 10 years from inception to uncover some sort of shady business practice, it makes these and other businesses put long term purpose over short term profit from the start. So getting brands and the crowd on the same page now will save all of us time, money and energy in the future and will surely help avert several potential crises from occurring.
